CU-Boulder: Highlights of 2012

December 27, 2012

Here’s a look back at some of the highlights of 2012 at the University of Colorado Boulder, including important accomplishments in research, athletics, the arts and student service, among other top stories:

Another Nobel

CU-Boulder lecturer David J. Wineland, also a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, won the Nobel Prize for physics this year. Wineland – whose groundbreaking research includes using lasers to trap ions – is the fifth CU faculty member to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

Combating disease

CU-Boulder researchers identified a new target for anti-cancer drug development that is sitting at the ends of our DNA, and in a separate study, CU-Boulder scientists identified two prime targets of the Hepatitis B virus in liver cells, which could lead to a treatment for the disease.

Service overseas

For the second year in a row, CU grads earned the university a No. 1 ranking from the Peace Crops for most volunteers. More than 100 buffs were serving overseas in January when the award was announced. CU has been ranked in the top three schools in the nation for Peace Corps volunteers every year since 2004.

Olympic Buffs

Six athletes with ties to CU-Boulder participated in the summer Olympics in London, including three current students. And CU-Boulder researchers were involved in several studies of amputee athletes that helped South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a bilateral leg amputee, win admittance to this year’s games.

President Obama and federal luminaries

President Barack Obama visited the CU-Boulder campus not once, not twice, but three times in 2012 during the run-up to the election. CU-Boulder also hosted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Law School’s Bench and Bar Conference and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who spoke at an event put on by the Center of the American West.

“Rake’s Progress” takes three forms

In September and October, CU-Boulder presented William Hogarth’s “Rake’s Progress,” a tale of a man who spends all his inheritance on women, clothes and drink before falling from grace. The school showcased the original artwork by Hogarth and prints by English artist David Hockney, as well as the opera by Igor Stravinsky based on the tale.

Political perspective

CU researchers found, in two cases, that what Americans think about political systems may not align with reality. First, researchers in the psychology and neuroscience department found that Americans overestimate political polarization while a professor in the political science department found that Congress works better than many Americans think.

Sky watching at CU

Two rare solar events drew thousands of people to the CU-Boulder campus this year. On May 20, an estimated 10,000 sky-gazers showed up at Folsom Field to watch the partial solar eclipse, when the moon crossed between the sun and the Earth, apparently taking a “bite” out of the sun. Hundreds more visited the Fiske Planetarium and the Sommers-Bausch Observatory on June 5 to watch as Venus made its trek across the face of the sun, an event that won’t be seen again for a century.

50 years of cutting-edge physics

JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, celebrated a half century on the cutting edge of physics this year, while scientists at the institute continued to publish new physics breakthroughs. This year, JILA researchers used ultrafast lasers to create the first tabletop X-ray device and they learned how to chill a gas of molecules to extremely low temperatures, a feat once thought to be nearly impossible.

Hungry beetles

CU researchers continued to bore into the pine beetle epidemic to explain the severity of the outbreak. Scientists in CU’s ecology and evolutionary biology department found that the bugs were breeding twice in a year, and researchers in the geography department connected the current epidemic with the 2001-02 drought.

A pair of thirds in the NCAA

The men’s cross country team repeated this year as the Pac-12 champions and finished third in the NCAA. The Buff skiers also took third in the NCAA after Katie Hartman returned to the team following a nasty knee injury.

The big melt

Researchers from institutes and departments across CU highlighted our warming world with research related to melting. Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center observed a record-setting low for sea ice extent in the Arctic, faculty at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences found that the Greenland Ice Sheet may be sliding into the ocean more quickly than before thanks to massive releases of meltwater from surface lakes, and a team led by the physics department found that glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding 150 billion tons of ice annually. CIRES scientists also found that Alaska’s iconic Columbia Glacier may actually stop retreating in 2020, reaching a new equilibrium.

A coaching change-up

The CU-Boulder football team ended 2012 with a new beginning. In December, Mike MacIntyre became the 25th full-time head football coach in CU history when he decided to leave San Jose State to coach the Buffaloes. MacIntyre replaced John Embree after the team finished with a 1-11 record in the fall.

Tracking carbon

Atmospheric scientists at CU-Boulder discovered that the Earth’s vegetation and oceans continue to soak up about half of the carbon dioxide being emitted in the world, even as those emissions go up. Other CU-Boulder researchers developed a new monitoring system that can tease out which carbon emissions are connected to the burning of fossil fuels and which are related to biological processes.

Unraveling mysteries in space

CU-Boulder researchers discovered that galaxies with the hungriest black holes produce fewer stars than other galaxies. CU-Boulder space scientists got a peek at a cluster of galaxies in their initial stage of construction. And CU-Boulder researchers played a key role in NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission, which launched this fall.